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Sal Vizzini & George H. Gaffney

by: Douglas Valentine

Usage: Public Domain Mark 1.0

Topics: Douglas Valentine, FBN, Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Roscoe Hillenkoetter, CIA, Central Intelligence Agency, Robert Kennedy, George Gaffney, Sal Vizzini

Collection: nsia_contributions; nationalsecurityarchive; additional_collections

Language: English

Interview with Douglas Valentine.

A veteran of the Second World War, Vizzini served as an Air Force investigator prior to joining the FBN in Atlanta in 1953. He was transferred to New York in 1955 and in 1956 was transferred again, this time to Miami to work undercover in Cuba under the direction of Atlanta district supervisor George Gaffney. Vizzini was transferred to Rome in 1958. He opened the FBN’s first office in Istanbul in 1959 an its first office in Bangkok in 1963. Vizzini ended his FBN career in Miami in 1966, when he became police chief in South Miami.

A Naval Academy graduate, Gaffney had served as a navigator on the USS Missouri during World War Two. His real interest was in intelligence work, so he resigned his commission in 1949 and, based on a brief association with Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter, the CIA’s first Director, sought work with the CIA. The CIA, however, rejected his application, so Gaffney went to work for the Federal Burea of Narcotics in 1949. In 1962, Attorney General Robert Kennedy would arrange for Gaffney’s transfer to FBN headquarters where he became deputy commissioner